The Beginning of the End SE4 EP1

“Jack, with your permission, I’d like to go with John.”

I have three words:
Worth.
The.
Wait.

Ok Folks, I was up till about 11:45 last night blogging and just finished listening to Preston & Steve’s wrap up. This show is awesome and I’m beyond excited to see where this season will take us. Let’s dive in:

Front Story
Hurley’s First Freakout
We open with the OJ chase scene on TV, except this time, the chase is in an orange Camaro and it’s Jack using the OJ as chaser for his vodka. Hurley has apparently seen something in a convenience store and it has caused him to freak out mightily and lead 22 squad cars on an interstate chase. Hurley is arrested while screaming, “I’m one of the Oceanic Six!” In the interview room, he is questioned by Ana Lucia’s former partner, who asks Hurley if he knew her. Hurley lies and says he never knew her. The detective doesn’t believe him and tells him to re-watch the tape, leaving Hurley alone in the interrogation room with his hallucination of Charlie swimming up to the glass and putting his hand up on the glass, reminiscent of his death in the Looking Glass Station (which proves that this is no ordinary hallucination, since Hurley clearly did not witness this event.) On Charlie’s hand is written “They Need You” then the glass breaks and Hurley melts down. As a result of this freak out, the cops tell him they will commit him and for that, Hurley thanks them profusely.


Hurley’s Second Freakout
Hurley is back in the mental ward playing Connect 4 when he receives a visitor—a freaky looking black man who introduces himself as a lawyer from Oceanic, Matthew Abidan. He claims he’d like to offer Hurley an upgrade to a better facility since Oceanic feels terribly about Hurley’s situation. Hurley claims he is fine. “Are you fine, Mr. Reyes? You’re in a mental institution.” Hurley then grows suspicious of his visitor and asks to see his business card. When Abidan claims he must’ve left them at home, Hurley blows him off, “Then we’re done, dude.” When Hurley starts to move away, Abidan pierces Hurley with those creepy sunken eyes and says, “Are they still alive?” Hurley freaks again.

Matthew Abidan
According to the P & S show and Wikipedia, “Abidan” is a Biblical character who is the son of Gideoni, was a judge and head of the tribe of Benjamin at the time of the exodus. Also, the keeper of the locust and something of the dead.

Hurley’s Third Freakout
It is a beautiful day at the mental hospital and the patients are having outside time. One of his fellow inmates tells him that he better watch out, that guy is staring at him. What guy? Oh, it’s only Dead Charlie. Charlie needs to talk to Hurly, since Hurley OBVIOUSLY ignored what Charlie was trying to tell everyone at the end. Charlie tells Hurley he has to do something, but he’s running away from it. “They need you Hugo. You know they need you!” Hurley closes his eyes, counts to five and freaks out then Charlie is gone. And here’s a thought for you: Hurley’s buddy in the mental home can actually SEE Charlie, too, so in what capacity is Charlie actually there?

Jack’s Freakout
Hurley’s playing basketball in the mental hospital gym and Jack, unshaven, but still looking pretty much like Jack comes in for a visit. Small talk ensues about the trappings of fame (autographs and reporters) and Jack’s contemplation of a beard. “Why are you here, Jack? Did you think I’d go nuts and tell?” Hurley tells Jack he’s sorry he went with Locke and that he should have stayed with Jack. Jack says he’s forgiven him, but you can tell he hasn’t. “I don’t think we did the right thing. I think it wants us to come back. I think it’s going to do everything it can to get us to come back.” Jack freaks: “WE’RE NEVER GOING BACK!”

Thoughts on the Front Story
The time frame for this flash forward is before last year’s season ended, since clearly Jack is not as far gone as he was at that time though is he on his way: at this point in time he is only slightly disheveled, not completely disgusting.

I believe the whole front story concept is one of a possible future, not one that has actually happened. I think up until the end of the show, the Lostaways, particularly Jack, will have an opportunity to “fix” their betrayal of the Island.

Is it possible that Hurley’s loony bin friend, Larry, who kept repeating the numbers, is also a former Lostaway who only wants to go back?

Finally, this whole Hurley front story plays beautifully into my Hurley-is-in-the-casket theory, if I do say so myself. Whose death would cause such remorse from Jack, but yet go almost completely unmourned by friends or family? How about a Hurley who has “told” the secret of the survivors living on the island? We know from last night’s episode that Hurley is wishy-washy—he apologizes to Jack for not going with him to begin with, then tells Jack that they made a mistake by coming back. He’s angry when Jack suggests that Hurley may “tell”, but really, how many more visits from Dead Charlie and Matt Abidan would it take for Hurley to completely lose it? That betrayal would certainly cause Kate to react as she did (“Why would I go?”) and the remorse from Jack, who also by this time believes that it was a dreadful mistake to leave the island, but that he, and he alone, is responsible for making them leave. Michael Emerson’s interview on the Preston & Steve show this week indicated that the occupant of the casket is a season 6 reveal, sit tight and stay tuned.

Who are the Oceanic 6?
We know who three of them are: Jack, Kate and Hurley. Juliet could have come back with them, but because technically, she wasn’t on Oceanic 815, she may not be one of the six. Rose and Bernard could be two since Rose has claimed that she “wouldn’t go anywhere with THAT man.” meaning Locke. Sayid may round out the group.

Island Time
At the Radio Tower
Jack chats with George Mitkowski on the Sat phone. George wants to talk to Naomi, whom Jack says is off collecting firewood, because the previously dead Naomi is suddenly missing. Meanwhile, Ben is begging Rousseau to take Alex and get her far away before the people from the freighter show up to kill them all. When he calls Alex, “My daughter”, Rousseau slugs him. Jack and Kate discuss what to do about Locke should he return and Jack, ever the logical one, says, “I’ll kill him.” Jack decides to go off with Rousseau (and drag Ben along) to follow the trail, but before he goes, Kate tells him there is another trail and they should follow that one as well. Jack, who always listens to the opinions of others before making a decision—oh wait—wrong show. Jack, who has gotten into the nasty habit of making bad unilateral decisions, blows Kate off and goes off into the jungle. Surprise, surprise, it turns out Jack was wrong and Naomi did in fact double back, a fact which Ben is only too happy to point out. And oh, by the way Jack, did I forget to mention that Kate also took the Sat phone when she hugged you? So sorry, I should have mentioned that.

Meanwhile, Kate has found Naomi, who pulls a knife on her when the sat phone starts ringing again. George tells her he’s losing the sat phone signal, can Naomi reprogram? Where has she been? What is the accident that she says has happened to her? With her dying breath, Naomi lies to George about being stabbed, and reprograms the phone so he can find the island.

Back at the Beach
Hurley and Bernard share a nice bonding moment anticipating the rescue. Hurley, realizing everyone thought he was dead, and had probably spent all his money, thinks he will now be free of the jinx. Then Desmond comes back, warning everyone that the people on the freighter are not who they say they are. Chaos ensues until Hurley finally screams, “Where’s Charlie?” Des is stricken. “I’m sorry brotha. Charlie’s dead.”

Hurley Lost in the Jungle
The Lostaways on the beach begin to trek back to the jungle to meet up with the rest of the Lostaways. Hurley lags behind and Sawyer, in a rare and heartwarming moment of sympathy, offers him a shoulder to cry on, which Hurley refuses. Hurley falls behind in the jungle and gets disoriented, hears whispering then suddenly find himself at….

Jacob’s Cabin
Hurley approaches the cabin when he sees the light go on. He looks through the broken glass and sees someone in the chair, then another person looks him right in the eye. At first I was sure that the “someone” was Jacob, and the eye was Locke, however now thanks to P & S I hear that the someone in the chair is actually Christian Sheppard and the eye could be Jacob, could be Locke. Could be that Jacob takes on the form of dead people –like Christian Sheppard and Charlie. Could be there’s something special about Hurley that has not yet been revealed.

Hurley Freaks for the fourth time, runs around but can’t seem to get away from the cabin. He falls back, only to be approached by Locke. Locke, we can assume was apparently busy in his new capacity as Grand Poobah of the Others by “conversing” with Jacob. Locke is now the new leader of the island and the Others—witness Ben’s willingness to follow him and also Locke’s forgiveness of Ben’s shooting him. Perhaps Ben has accepted that Locke is the new leader since he obviously survived the gunshot. Locke and Hurley agree that the people on the freighter are bad and should not be trusted. They also agree that trying to convince Jack of this is not going to be easy.

Reunion at the Fuselage
Hurley and Locke head back to the fuselage, where they meet up with the rest of the Lostaways who were on the beach. Sayid is still pissed at Locke, tells him he will not “support” him in trying to change Jack’s mind about the people on the freighter. Then the rest of the Lostaways show up, minus Jack, Rousseau, Ben and Kate. Hurley tells Claire that Charlie is dead. Lisa gets a little misty. Jack, Ben and Rousseau come back and Jack slugs Locke. Locke goes for his gun, which Jack takes and points at Locke. Locke tells Jack, “Jack, you’re not going to shoot me anymore than I was going to shoot you>” At which point Jack pulls the trigger on an empty chamber. “It wasn’t loaded,” Locke informs him, as if that was a forgone conclusion. But the damage has been done. The Lostaways have seen Jack’s leadership mantle slip. Easily the most shocking scene in a show chock full of shocks.

Locke then tries to plead his case to stay away from the Freighter people. As evidence he offers that he told them that Juliet was a traitor—which Jack denies since she helped them. But as Locke sees it, Juliet is a traitor—to the island. It is through her actions that the island has been found and is now in danger. Locke tells everybody that they can go stay in the barracks until he can think of a better place. Jack laughs—nobody is going to follow you! You’re nuts. Hmmm…not so nuts, Jack. Here comes Hurley, Claire, Des, Sawyer Ben (with my favorite line) and some others. I think the only ones of note staying with Jack are Kate, Rose and Bernard. Not sure which side Sayid stayed with. Did anyone catch it? Sun and Jin?

Best Lines
The best lines of the night belonged to Ben, including the one at the top of this post.
· Upon Jack noting Naomi is gone, Ben remarks, “Better call the boat; tell them she’s getting a really big bundle of fire wood.”
· When Jack accuses Locke of killing Naomi, Ben remarks, “Well...technically, he didn’t kill her yet.”
· And, of course, Ben’s whole explanation to Jack about Kate taking the sat phone “I probably should have told you about that.” Then he proceeds to rub Jack’s face in the fact that Kate was right and Jack was wrong. “Well at least someone here knows what they’re doing.”
· Hurley to Dead Charlie: “I’m trying to buy some jerky and a slushy, and you’re standing there by the HoHo’s.”

Lost: Past Present and Future
Not much to report here, except it was a solid recap show. It was notable only in who was missing :Michael, whom we know returns this year. The clip show focused on Jack, Locke, Kate, Sawyer, Ben, Juliet, Hurley, Desmond, Charlie, and Sayid. Close attention was paid to “man of science, man of faith” theme. As the series goes on, however, is there any doubt that the man of faith is the one who should be followed? Also of note, Hurley’s imaginary friend Dave makes an appearance. Look for this to tie in with Hurley’s other sightings of Dead People.

News Item regarding the writers’ strike as it relates to Lost (thanks Sig)
“Therese Odell - Houston Chronicle - Because of the writers' strike, Lost has only half of this season's 16 episodes ready to air, and there's little hope that the remaining episodes will be produced before the end of the spring TV season.

“Fortunately, The Beginning of the End and next week's Confirmed Dead are among the most mind-blowingly, toe-curlingly, mouth-gapingly exciting episodes to date.

“As the title of tonight's episode suggests, this is the midpoint of the series, the beginning of the end of the show. And if the beginning of Season Four is any indication, Lost will end on the high note that the premiere episode of this visionary series promised.

It's been a long wait, but it was worth it.”

Next Week
Oppum is here to rescue them. And he’s just as creepy and trustworthy as he was in Saving Private Ryan.